Saturday, January 19, 2013

A survey by University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Bangalore
says that annually, Bangalore alone wastes 943 tonnes of quality food
during weddings and the total food wastage in the city is estimated at
Rs 339 crores. As per data from the solid waste management department of
the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), around 140 tonnes of leftover
food is collected daily from the hotels and restaurants in the city
which nearly 50 percent is good to consume. India is facing the loss of
Rs.50,000 crores worth of food items. United states, the food waste
worth is $180 billion every year, Canada's food waste is approximately
40 percent and worth of $27 billion, around 5.3 million tonnes of food
waste goes to trash in UK that's worth is £12 billion, the food wasted
in Italy can feed the entire population of Ethiopia. The FAO estimates
that more than 30% of the global food production goes to garbage that
counts 1.3 billion tonnes which can cater to 3 billion people.Food waste can be occurred in three levels 1. Farm level ,2. Distribution level, 3. End user level.The major food waste happens in the farm level. Before harvesting,
the crop losses could be with pest, birds, rodents and wild animals and
the natural disasters also can cause for crop damages. Losses may be
high in harvesting process since the machine harvesters are unable to
detect the difference between ripen and half grown crops and also it
collect some part of the crop and the rest will be left in the field
itself. Some crops like horticulture produces must be harvested by hand
picking only, then some root crops may damaged by careless hand
harvesting and acute labor shortage lead to the yield loss as crops are
not harvested and decayed in the fields.At the distribution level, supply chain & value chain losses
are very frequent due to lack of storage facilities, no proper
transportation and unable to access the markets on policy issues. A
nation-wide study on quantitative assessment of harvest and post harvest
losses for 46 agricultural produces in 106 randomly selected districts
was conducted by CIPHET in 2010 revealed that wastage in fruits and
vegetables is between 5.8 - 18.0 % for different crops. Wastage are
lower for other items as compared to fruits & vegetable: for
crop (3.9 -6.0%), cereals (4.3-6.1%), pulses (4.3-6.1% ), oilseeds
(6.0%), Meat (2.3%), fish (2.9% ) and poultry(3.7%). Although the food
stored in proper facilities, some portion get waste by the pests and
microorganisms, supermarkets always reject the produces for slight
cosmetic imperfection though they met the edible standards. Retail
stores, farmers markets and whole sellers are losing huge amounts in
unsold fruits and vegetables, we can't ignore the export losses in food
products since they don't meet the agriculture, safety and health
standards. Altogether, a significant quantity of food produced goes
waste during the processes of pre & post harvesting, supply
& value chain.Food waste can be seen everywhere in our daily life, in kitchen at
home, restaurants, in big fat weddings, gala parties, in work place
canteens and so on. Some social behaviors have lead to food waste like
cooking surplus food, ordering excess food in the restaurants, load-up
the plates with more than sufficient items in buffet. Once in a while
when we check our refrigerator, we may find some leftovers and uneaten
food that ends up in the trash can. Super markets promotion sales also
push the consumers to buy more than enough food and which is frequently
throw away. Waste happens in throughout the food system in all stages like
farming, transportation, processing, distribution, supermarkets,
restaurants, food service providers and households which accounts
around 40% of the food we produce.Recycling and disposal expenses are additional burden to the food
waste, all uneaten food ends up in our landfills which generates green
house gas emissions and it is estimated that 14% of the world’s CO2
emissions are caused by food waste itself. This huge waste of food puts
heavy pressure on agriculture as it must provide for growing population
that is wasting up to 2 billion tonnes of food a year. Agriculture
consumes 70% of water reserves in the process of food production, 3000
liters of water required for our daily food needs, management of water
is the key for our food production and water is going to be more
expensive in future. One more important issue is land usage, if we lose
the food with wasteful habits the demand will be increased for
extensive usage of land for farming and livestock. The food waste has
ripple effects on other industries like energy, fertilizers and
pesticides which are produced by coal, chemicals, fuel, natural gas and
so on, all these incremental cost is driven by uneaten food.Wasting a food is a cultural habit, by not wasting food we can
express ourselves as well mannered and responsible. The most important
thing is... to buy only whatever our actual need and use it completely.
The super markets should liberalize their purchase practices i.e.
rejecting the food stocks for just small flaws in physical
characteristics. Government should set a national goal to reduce the
waste and sensitize the public against the waste of food by creating
awareness and should encourage the NGOs who are working against food
waste. Modern engineering and technologies should be implemented in
Pre/Post harvesting stages and fully integrated infrastructure should be
created for transport, storage and processing. Elimination of food
waste will provide a lot more food for growing population, it reduces
the carbon foot print and mitigates the heavy load on agriculture.

About Me

I have a dream that the farmers shall be treated as entrepreneurs and knowledgeable workers. Farmers shall be respected as most Valuable citizens of the earth. I would like to achieve my vision by working for agriculture,food and economy.